1996: Leader Paes Wins Bronze, India Gets a Medal After 1980 Olympics

Leander Paes won historical Bronze in Men’s Singles Tennis, ending India’s medal drought of 3 Olympics. India had last won a medal in 1980 Olympics when Indian Men’s Hockey team won their last Gold medal at Olympics.

Indian Performance in Every Olympics
History of All Sports Played at Olympics by India
Olympic History

Olympics Statistics

1. Venue: Atlanta, Georgia, United States

1. Sports: 271 events in 26 sports

1. Participating Nations: 197

Athletes Participating: 10,320 (6,797 men, 3,523 women)

Indian Statistics

1. India Ranking: 71

1. Flag Bearer: Pargat Singh

1. Indian Team: 49 Athletes (9 Female in 5 eventts)

1. Sports-India: Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Equestrianism, Hockey, Judo, Shooting, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Weightlifting, Wrestling

1. 4th: Shiny Abraham-Wilson (Athletics)

1. 3rd: Pargat Singh (Hockey), Limba Ram (Archery)

2nd: Changte Lalremsaga (Archery), Bahadur Prasad (Athletics), Deepankar Bhattacharya (Badminton), Harpreet Singh, Mukesh Kumar Nandanoori, Dhanraj Pillay (Hockey), Narinder Singh (Judo), Mansher Singh (Shooter), Chetan Baboor (Table Tennis), Leander Paes (Tennis), Raghavan Chanderasekaran, Badathala Adisekhar (Weightlifting), Pappu Jadav (Wrestling)

Archery: 3 Men in 2 events
Changte Lalremsaga, Skalzang Dorje, Limba Ram: Men’s Individual and 14th in Men’s Team

Athletics: 6 Athletes (4 women) in 3 events

1. Bahadur Prasad: Round 1 Men’s 1,500 metres

1. Shakti Singh: Round 1 Men’s Discus Throw

K. M. Beenamol, Rosa Kutty Kunnath Chacko, Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, Shiny Abraham-Wilson: Women’s 4 × 400 metres Relay

Badminton

1. Deepankar Bhattacharya: Round 2 Men’s Singles

Varalakshimi Pandimukkala Venkata: Round 2 Women’s Singles

Boxing: 3 men in 3 events

1. Debendra Thapa: Round 2 Men’s Light-Flyweight

1. Gurcharan Singh: Round 2 Men’s Light-Heavyweight

Lakha Singh: Round 2 Men’s Heavyweight

Equestrianism: 1 man for 1 event
Indrajit Lamba: Mixed Three-Day Event, Individual

Hockey: 8th
Indians lost only one match at Group A but failed to reach semifinals as they drew in two games, against Germany and Pakistan. They lost both the classification matches to finish 8th,
Squad

1. 2nd: Harpreet Singh, Mukesh Kumar Nandanoori, Dhanraj Pillay

Others: Subbaiah Anjaparavanda, Riaz Nabi Muhammad, Sanjeev Kumar, Baljit Singh Saini, Sabu Varkey, Rahul Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Alloysius Edwards, Anil Alexander Aldrin, Gavin Ferreira, Ramandeep Singh Grewal, Dilip Kumar Tirkey

Results

1. Preliminary Round (Group A):

1. Lost to Argentina 0 – 1

1. Drew Germany 1 – 1

1. Def United States 4 – 0

1. Drew Pakistan 0 – 0

1. Def Spain 3 – 1

1. Classification Matches:

1. 5th/8th place: Lost to South Korea 3 – 3 (South Korea wins after penalty strokes, 5 – 3)

7th/8th place: Lost to Great Britain 3 – 4

Judo: 4 (2 women) in 4 events

1. Narinder Singh: Men’s Extra-Lightweight

1. Najib Aga: Round 3 Men’s Half-Lightweight

1. Sunith Thakur: Round 2 Women’s Half-Lightweight

Shah Kohli: 13th Women’s Heavyweight

Shooting: 2 Men in 3 events

1. Jaspal Rana: Men’s Air Pistol, 10 metres and Men’s Free Pistol, 50 metres

Mansher Singh: Men’s Trap

Swimming: 2 (1 woman) in 2 events

1. Sebastian Xavier: 49th Men’s 50 metres Freestyle

Sangeeta Puri: 48th Women’s 50 metres Freestyle

Table Tennis:

1. Chetan Baboor: Men’s Singles

Ambika Radhika: Women’s Singles

Tennis: 2 men in 2 events
In his second appearance, Leander Paes achieved the miracle result of winning an Olympic medal in Men’s Singles. It required World’s top player Andre Agassi to stop him from entering the Olympics finals, still he successfully grabbed the Bronze medal.
Leander Paes / Mahesh Bhupathi Quarterfinals in Men’s Doubles
Leander Paes: Bronze in Men’s Singles

1. 1st round: Def Richey Reneberg (USA) 6-7 7-6 1-0 retired

1. 2nd round: Def Nicolas Pereira (Venezuela) 6-2 6-3

1. 3rd round: Def Thomas Enqvist (Sweden) 7-5 7-6

1. Quarter Finals: Def Renzo Furlan (Italy) 6-1 7-5

1. Semi Finals: Lost to Andre Agassi (United States) 6-7 3-6

Bronze Medal: Def Fernando Meligeni (Brazil) 3-6 6-2 6-4

Weightlifting

1. Badathala Adisekhar: 18th Men’s Flyweight

1. Raghavan Chanderasekaran: 11th Men’s Bantamweight

1. Sandeep Kumar: 33rd Men’s Featherweight

1. Samsudeen Kabeer: 23rd Men’s Lightweight

Satheesha Rai: 15th Men’s Middleweight

Wrestling: 1 in 1 event
Pappu Jadav: Men’s Flyweight, Greco-Roman